


Can't always keep him back

by liliaeth



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Derek Hale, Gen, Hurt Stiles, M/M, blaming themselves for the character getting injured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-01-24 01:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18561163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liliaeth/pseuds/liliaeth
Summary: Scott comforts Derek, after Stiles gets hurt trying to protect Derek





	Can't always keep him back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jld71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jld71/gifts).



Scott looked down at Stiles, carefully listening to his friend’s heartbeat, pushing out the distraction of outside noise. Nurses and visitors talking in the hall outside, the beeping of the machine monitoring Stiles. He desperately tried to follow the pattern. It scared him, how hard his friend’s heart was working just to keep going, how difficult Stiles’ breathing went even with the oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose. Scott had finally managed to get the sheriff to go downstairs to have something to eat, maybe even take a shower if Mom could slip him into the staff showers. They all knew that their stay here could end up being a marathon that might last days more than it already had.

The monster that attacked Stiles hadn’t gone down easy. As much as Scott wanted to say that the thing did what it did on purpose, the reality was that it had just been lashing out in pain, taking down anything around it, no matter how innocent.

Someone was sitting outside the door, and he could feel waves of guilt coming down the hall into the room, mixing with the clinical hospital scent that was getting far too familiar. He moved up from his seat next to Stiles’ bed, and headed into the hallway. Derek was leaning up against the wall in the corner, away from the room yet close enough to listen in. It felt wrong somehow, as if Derek thought he wouldn’t have been welcomed inside.

“How is he?” Derek asked. Scott stared back at the room.

“He’ll survive.” Scott closed his eyes, wishing that he could just do something, anything, to save Stiles. But even if he gave him the Bite, there was no way to be sure that, in Stiles' weakened condition, it wouldn’t just kill him instead of save him. That’s not even counting the part where Stiles hadn’t wanted the bite, had been scared of it. Scott hadn’t ever wanted to force it on him, but he didn’t want Stiles to die either. “He’s a fighter, he always has been.”

Derek looked down, the stench of guilt growing ever stronger. Scott put his hand on the older wolf’s shoulder.

“You know it wasn’t your fault.” Derek looked away. “Derek, there was nothing you could have done. Nothing any of us could have done.”

Scott shivered, remembering the fight. He’d been tearing into the creature’s torso as Derek went down, hit and dazed by one of the thing’s tentacles. Stiles screamed, drawing the creature’s attention towards him, away from Derek. Derek was fighting his way back up, when Stiles jumped in front of him, throwing mountain ash in a desperate attempt to ward the thing away from Derek. Scott yelled at Stiles to get back but it had been too late. The vine tentacles slammed Stiles’ head into the soil before any of them were able to move, before stiles was even able to close his mouth.

They tried to get closer and for a moment Scott felt the world go dark as Stiles dissappeared into the quicksand.

Derek dove into the mud, dragging Stiles out of it, just as Scott gave the thing its final death blow. But it had been too late, Scott and Derek worked together, desperate to force the sludge out of stiles throat, to take Stiles pain, give him the strength to survive till they got him to the hospital. But even then the doctors seemed skeptical of Stiles’ chances of survival.

“I should have made sure he stayed back. I should have…”

Scott knew exactly how Derek felt. He’d been screaming at himself how much more he should have done.  How he should have been faster, better, anything.

“Have you met Stiles?”

Derek glared at him.

“Derek, I gave up trying to keep Stiles out of a fight he wanted to get involved in, back when Peter was still Alpha. It’s Stiles, he’s gonna be involved, no matter what we do or tell him. The best thing we can hope for, is to keep him behind us in a fight, so we can keep the worst away from him. “

“But he’s only human.”

“That’s never stopped him. If he didn’t want to be there, he wouldn’t be. Stiles knew the risks. “

It’s one of the things Scott loved most about his best friend, his brother really. That Stiles would do whatever he could to protect the ones he cared about. Whether that was his father, Scott… or Derek.

“He’s an idiot.” Derek spat out, but Scott knew that the venom behind his words wasn’t aimed at Stiles, it was aimed at himself.

“Yeah, but he’s our idiot.”

Derek looked up, startled.

“He loves you, Derek. Stiles is never gonna hide, when the people he loves are in danger and he can do something to save them.”

“He … he doesn’t. We’re just…”

“Derek. I know.” Scott wondered how oblivious the two thought he was. Just because he’d been giving Stiles the time to tell him himself, instead of dragging it out of him, doesn’t mean he hadn’t seen the growing looks between his two best friends.

“You know.”

“I know.”

Derek’s mouth fell open in shock.

“I _have_ known Stiles for our entire life. I know the look in his eyes when he is falling for someone, the way he holds your hand when he can. God, Derek, the two of you even started smelling like one another.”

Derek blushed.

“And you’re not…?”

Scott wasn’t sure what Derek thought was going to happen, but whatever it was, Derek should know better.

“I am … older than Stiles.” Derek finally got out.

Scott was about to roll his eyes,

“And after everything I’ve done…”

“Derek. He loves you. That’s all that matters.” Scott wasn’t even sure what he should say. How could be begin to tell Derek how much the both of them mattered to him, and how much he wanted both of them to be happy? How much he wanted Stiles to survive this, even just so Stiles could slap Derek over the head for ever thinking he wasn’t good enough for him?

“He needs you. You know that, right?”

Derek hadn’t been in Stiles hospital room in the ICU, figuring Scott and the sheriff should have first chance to be with Stiles. And as much as Scott appreciated that, he knew that when – not if – Stiles woke up, he’d want to see Derek there with him. Stiles would need to know that Derek was alright.

“Go in there, be there for him. Please.”

Scott sank down against the wall outside, listening to Derek’s footsteps as he entered the room and carefully sat down, as if the chair would break down beneath him.

Derek didn’t say anything, but Scott could hear the rustling of the sheets as he clearly placed his hand on the bed.

Stiles breathing sped up for a second and soothing down again.

“Please Stiles, wake up.” Scott whispered. "We need you."

When Stiles finally did, two days later, the three of them were in the room together, Scott sitting on the window sill, the sheriff had a chair in the left corner, and Derek still sitting right next to Stiles. Scott had had to force Derek to take care of himself, he hadn’t left the room even once.

“You smell.” The words came out almost gargled from underneath the oxygen mask. It was like hearing the angels sing.

Derek startled up, his worry hidden behind anger: "What kind of moron would jump into a fight like that without thinking? You could have died, you asshole!"

Stiles tried to sit up, and Scott jumped up to try and stop him before Stiles could pull his stitches. Derek beat him to it, forcing Stiles back down.

Stiles looked between both of them, before turning back to Derek. "Your kind of moron?" Almost as if he was uncertain.

Scott could see that Derek was struggling to not just pull Stiles into his arms, wanting to be the sappy sentimental guy they all knew Derek really was behind the gruff demeanor.

"....yeah. Mine," Derek whispered, as if he still couldn’t believe it.

Scott and Stiles shared a look, sharing a million words between them, words that Scott knew Stiles wouldn’t be able to get out at the moment, and shouldn’t have to.

Stiles asking, _is this ok?_ Scott telling him, _of course it is_ , wanting to tell Stiles how happy he was for both of them, how much he cared for both of them.

Instead all he said was: “I’ll go get the doctor.” He shared a look with the sheriff who followed him out, giving Derek and Stiles some time on their own.

He looked back behind him as Stiles and Derek teased one another, Stiles mocking Derek’s smell and telling him he needed a shower, Derek telling him, “Look who’s talking”

They’d be alright. They’d have to be.

 


End file.
